1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to an image forming device, and more particularly to an image forming device including a sheet ejection space between an image formation unit and an image reading unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming device is arranged to include an image reading unit to read image information from a document, an image forming unit to form an image of the read image information on a copy sheet, a sheet feeding part to supply the copy sheet, and a sheet ejection part to eject the copy sheet on which the image is formed out of the image forming device.
From among the image forming devices of the above type, some image forming devices have been proposed for improvements of compactness and space saving. For example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 3981230, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-015923, and Japanese Patent No. 2846435. In such an improved image forming device, the sheet feeding part is accommodated in a lower portion of the image forming unit, the image reading unit is disposed above an upper portion of the image forming unit, and a sheet ejection space is provided between the image forming unit and the image reading unit.
In the above-described image forming device according to the related art, the image reading unit is disposed in and supported by a mounting portion. The mounting portion is formed by several component parts in combination, including an arm extending from a supporting portion arranged in the rear part of the image forming unit to the front part of the image forming unit. It is difficult to ensure that the surface of the mounting portion (upon which the image reading unit is mounted) is mounted with good plane accuracy. The mounted position of the image reading unit is easily distorted from the horizontal position. As a result, the accuracy of the image reading by the image reading unit will be affected and the quality of the image transferred to the copy sheet will be deteriorated.
Further, it is demanded that the direction of an operation unit arranged in the image forming device can be adjusted to an arbitrary rotation angle and the rotated position of the operation unit after the adjustment can be held stably.